The WRC team attended the Train Mountain Triennial Meet from June 20 to June 28, 2009. Mike Lewis and his family arrived at the largest miniature railroad on Saturday, June 20, to begin an early setup of the WRC vendor display. CEO John Rimmasch, accompanied by his father, Dwight, arrived a little later in the week after fulfilling other WRC projects in progress.
For those that may not know, Train Mountain has been highlighted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Longest Miniature Hobby Railroad. It currently has over 22 real miles of 7½ inch gauge track spread over a little more than 2,000 acres of forest land near Chiloquin, OR.
Several attendees came from all over the world for the meet. WRC had the opportunity to meet and talk with people from Switzerland, Australia, England, and Canada, as well as the many, many people from all over the United States.
While many attendees were already on site, more and more arrived each day throughout the week. WRC was the only vendor present offering boiler services for maintenance and construction, and we were very happy to talk to the many people who stopped by our booth to ask questions. The questions presented ranged from boiler basics (like, “How exactly does a boiler work?” or “What’s inside a boiler?”) to more technical questions relating to ASME/NBIC Code construction and repairs. To facilitate answering the many questions, WRC brought two boilers for show: The retired boiler from John Rimmasch’s 15-inch gauge Cagney (which has sections cut out to allow visitors to see the inside), and an incomplete, new construction Code boiler WRC is building for a client.
Additionally, the WRC team presented two scheduled seminars during the week. On Tuesday, June 23, Mike Lewis presented an overview of the company, its involvement with a variety of full-scale boiler projects (i.e. UP 844, SNCF 141 R 568, etc.), and other company background information.
This was followed up on Thursday morning with a complete presentation by John Rimmasch about the ASME Code for steam boilers. Time went very quickly, and because of the large interest for discussion during this session, an impromptu session was scheduled for later that afternoon. The discussion also covered basic boiler maintenance, types of materials used in construction, how the ASME Code relates to codes and standards established in other countries, and what the advantages are of getting a Code boiler.
John Rimmasch also had the opportunity to visit with many of the live steam operators and their locomotives, and even offer some suggestions and answer questions with their boiler operation and maintenance. As a result, WRC even left the event with two extra boilers in the back of the truck to be worked on at the shop in Cheyenne, WY.
The team had fun too. Mike Lewis’ family enjoyed several train rides around the Mountain throughout the week, and the WRC team was treated to a late evening ride by members of the Assiniboine Valley Railway, visiting from Manitoba, Canada.
